WorkSafeNB encourages all workers to be safety leaders

April 2, 2015

WorkSafeNB
released its 2014 Annual Report this week and is pleased to
announce that New Brunswick remains one of the safest places to
work in Canada. As a result of this, New Brunswick employers pay
the lowest rates in Atlantic Canada.

“New
Brunswickers have continued to demonstrate that a workplace is much
more than the place where people come to punch a clock and do their
jobs. It is a place where individual effort and group collaboration
are essential to all aspects of an organization’s success,
including the creation of a health and safety culture,” said Gerard
Adams, WorkSafeNB's president and CEO.

WorkSafeNB
is committed to promoting healthy and safe workplaces for New
Brunswick’s workers and employers. While the priority is preventing
workplace injuries and occupational disease, WorkSafeNB provides
comprehensive rehabilitation services and fair compensation
benefits when necessary.

WorkSafeNB
is pleased with progress made in 2014. Injury frequency rates
continued to decline. There were 2.89 injuries per 100 full-time
employees, which is a decrease from previous years. These numbers
are very encouraging, but there is still work to do.

Also 96%
of 3,834 injured workers returned to work or were capable of
returning to work following their rehabilitation. Of the workers
who attended WorkSafeNB’s Rehabilitation Centre (WRC) in 2014,
86.4% of them were mostly or completely satisfied with the services
they received there.

In 2014,
WorkSafeNB worked on many important initiatives, such as: a
strategy for nursing home employees to reduce injuries; a
risk-reduction plan for waste collection workers, who are three
times more likely to be injured on the job than the average New
Brunswick worker; and Safety Excellence NB, a campaign to engage
New Brunswick employers in promoting workplace safety.

WorkSafeNB
wants to remind all New Brunswickers to be safe at work and to be
aware of their rights to work in a safe and healthy
environment.